Is Larry Summers Leaving?

By Clive Crook

Larry Summers is not long for the White House, says Josh Green. As Josh notes, I expressed some skepticism--puzzlement might be a more apt word--about his earlier Atlantic profile of Tim Geithner
(it's a fine article, by the way: be sure to read it). This was not
because I was surprised to learn of tensions in Obama's over-populated
team of economics stars. That had always seemed likely. And it was not
because I question Geithner's abilities (presentational talents aside),
which the piece rightly celebrates. I just found it hard it to believe
that Summers would accept being sidelined to the extent the article
suggested he had been. My thinking was, if it really is that way, why
is Summers still there?

Perhaps I am about to get my answer. If
he does go, the administration will be losing an extraordinary talent.
And I wouldn't be inclined to blame Summers for the fact that it did
not work out. Josh says:

Summers always seemed a bad
fit for NEC director because the job entails dispassionately presenting
the president with the counsel of his competing economic advisers.
Summers doesn't do "dispassionate" and he didn't want to limit himself
to fielding others' advice--he had plenty of his own to offer.

Hiring Larry in the hope he would be a self-effacing conduit for others' ideas, if that is what happened, was absurd.